Album: Ithaca
Artist: Michael Guy Bowman
Cover Art: Michael Guy Bowman
Has Track Art: no
Date: January 1, 2012
Date Added: February 12, 2021
Color: #c82537
Groups:
- Michael Guy Bowman
- Beyond
URLs:
- https://bowman.bandcamp.com/album/ithaca
Commentary:
    <i>Michael Guy Bowman:</i>
    <i>Experimental aircraft, lost civilizations, mythic quests, the Philippines, true love, utter loss, and the transience of life - the many subjects of Ithaca, the first independently released Bowman album. Scattergun in its genre and chaotically retro in its fashion, Ithaca is an eclectic mix of songs both personal and abstract. Bowman once again brings his familiar voice and ever-changing production style along with several friends from the Homestuck music project and elsewhere. Ithaca is calling.</i>
    After spending years making music exclusively for Homestuck, I branched out with 2012’s Ithaca, my first independently released album. Following up on my album-within-a-web-comic [[album:mobius-trip-and-hadron-kaleido]], I moved away from my palette of digital synths to focus on a classic rock style. Out come the guitars, the bass, the little toy harp. Shades of Eno, Bowie, The Beatles, Pink Floyd, even a swing tune. It’s a freaky affair.
    The ideas came from everywhere. There’s a song based on something I heard in a dream when I was eight years old, ([[Old Buggy Now]]). There’s one about an engineer who falls in love with an experimental aircraft ([[Tacit Blue]]). There’s a carriage ride through a Manila’s Chinatown district ([[Kalesa In Binondo]]). The title track [[Ithaca]] recalls Odysseus, a bowman himself. All of it is peppered with guest contributions from Internet friends.
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Track: Old Buggy Now
Duration: 3:35
URLs:
- https://bowman.bandcamp.com/track/old-buggy-now
Lyrics:
    Riding through the night like a jaded vagabond
    No one else in sight I could be the only one
    Hear me radio, play the song I know
    Take me where I long to go

    'Cause there’s nobody nobody now
    Who can hear me or stop me now
    In this old buggy old buggy now
    In this old buggy old buggy now

    Guided by the stars burning up petroleum
    Here inside my car I could be the only one
    Somewhere in the sky a satellite on high
    Watches with its lonely eye
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Track: Ascension
Artists: Michael Guy Bowman, James Dever
Contributors:
- Luke Benjamins (eight bit sequencing)
- Andrew Huo (violin)
- Solatrus (lead synth)
- Peter Turner (synth solo)
Duration: 3:55
URLs:
- https://bowman.bandcamp.com/track/ascension
Lyrics:
    Long before there was you and I
    The ancient ones lived in the sky
    A kingdom built upon the stars
    A million tiny points of light
    Do you ever wonder where they’ve gone?
    Don’t you ever wonder why?

    The ancient ones they rose and fell
    For reasons that we just can’t tell
    Cataclysm - maybe so
    Perhaps we’re just not meant to know
    Empire never lasts or so it seems
    But some say they’re still with us in our dreams

    Ascending off to god knows where the ancient ones took parole
    Legend says they were running from a force beyond their control
    And the kingdom that was left behind
    Was turned to dust from which mankind
    Did first emerge like cinders up from the coal

    And you and I we are the ash
    Of demons slain and cities smashed
    The ancient ones they reached too far
    And thus for now the world is ours
    And though it’s just a legend so they say
    Perhaps they will return again someday
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Track: Come With Me
Duration: 4:47
URLs:
- https://bowman.bandcamp.com/track/come-with-me
Contributors:
- Thomas Ferkol (guitar solo)
- Tavia Morra (backup vocals)
Lyrics:
    Your weak young heart keeps playing its part for show
    And though you never say never you never say yes or no
    Even if you never grow up you’ll still grow old
    So why do the warmest welcomes leave you cold?

    Dust in the shadows, smoke in your eyes
    Heart full of anger, head full of lies

    There’s no way of knowing which way you’re going
    But at least you’re free, at least you're free
    So when the wind is blowing and the stars aren’t showing
    You can come with me, come with me

    Your weak young heart is resting safe and sound
    But the child you were is nowhere to be found
    Well I’ve read in books that most folks feel this way
    But the game cannot resume 'til you press play

    No place to run to, no use pretending
    Life in this moment, not in its ending
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Track: Tacit Blue
Duration: 2:15
URLs:
- https://bowman.bandcamp.com/track/tacit-blue
Contributors:
- Clark Powell (string arrangement and sequencing)
- Nick Smalley (additional sequencing)
Lyrics:
    Back in the lab I’m running the test
    If you won’t fly then I won’t rest
    Turbines turning in the tunnel of love
    Upon that perch sits my dove

    Built for stealth like a silent blade
    My cobalt queen adorned in jade
    Navy seal but Air Force-made
    Please be true, the things you’ll do
    Tacit Blue

    Hear my siren sound her bell
    Your heart belongs to someone else
    Sapphire spy you were built for war
    My best girl a government whore

    I should have known that’s what you’d be
    I set you up they set you free
    How could you do this to me?
    Like a shrew the tramp just flew
    Tacit Blue

    Years go by and I get no sign
    Until one day by chance I find
    Blackbird, Valkyrie standing in place
    Between their wings - familiar face

    Oblong dame - a museum piece
    Eternally posed for eyes that feast
    Home at last with cousin and niece
    But once I knew the other you
    Tacit Blue
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Track: Rodeo Clown
Duration: 4:09
Contributors:
- Marcy Nabors (flute)
URLs:
- https://bowman.bandcamp.com/track/rodeo-clown
Lyrics:
    I'm just a good machine
    You turn me on and I’ll get by
    But you’re just like gasoline
    You burn right up until you’re dry, oh why?

    I don’t want to have to hold your hand
    But you have always been unpredictable, bless your soul
    Why can’t you see?

    You are a rodeo clown
    Does that not get you down?
    We only keep you around for a laugh
    But i just can’t help but frown

    Do you just like to be hurt?
    You see the danger and flirt
    And they laugh while you’re face down in the dirt

    Does that just get you high?
    Making a good friend cry
    I’d stay but I’m not gonna watch you die

    I sometimes envy you
    There’s magic each time you arrive
    But i just can’t get into you
    You never live you just survive, oh why?

    I just want to walk by your side
    But you have always walked on the tightest rope
    Is there no hope?
    Why can’t you see?
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Track: Cerulean Skies
Duration: 3:22
URLs:
- https://bowman.bandcamp.com/track/cerulean-skies
Lyrics:
    I never had the best of health
    Just a lot of time and a little wealth
    I never failed, I only tried
    Just a moment too late, the dream had died

    I never saw cerulean skies
    Or the light of the truth behind the lies
    I never received, I only took
    From the few pages left of every un-burned book

    I never once saw time well-spent
    Or a wise man who was not hell-bent
    I never spoke, I only screamed
    As the men upstairs shot down my dreams

    Come on (come right on) 
    Come on (sit down with sin)
    Come on (no way to win)
    'Cause if you can’t kiss ass then you can’t begin

    Come on (no chance in hell)
    Come on (think for yourself)
    Come on (you might as well)
    'Cause a good student has nothing on a good sell

    Come on (write your own role)
    Come on (no lump of coal)
    Come on (just rock and roll)
    'Cause if you’re not damned yet then you’ve sold your soul

    At first I tried to fight the law
    But I never pulled the very first straw
    I could not fight my mom and dad
    When the sins of the parents were the ones I had

    I fought for all the underdogs
    Who turned out to be hive-mind cogs
    I fought for love - of course I lost
    But I was the one who named that cost

    I tried to fight the last of my friends
    But all i found were long-dead-ends
    I’d lost my time, I’d lost my wealth,
    And I’d never once tried to fight for myself
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Track: Noun
Duration: 5:14
URLs:
- https://bowman.bandcamp.com/track/noun
Lyrics:
    Somewhere in a jungle grove a candle burns denoting Saint Therese
    A prayer that those we’ve left behind are troubled not with heart and mind at peace
    Nurse attending close at hand with wine to cast its old familiar spell
    An elder soul looks into you but cannot speak in things the tongue can tell

    I’m sorry I forgot your name
    I only have myself to blame
    If you were me you’d do the same

    Somewhere in this downward race
    A person, name, a thing, or place
    Solution to my endless chase
    I’m sure I’d recognize its face

    Though I forget myself
    I’m sure there’s something else
    I’ll come around
    I'll make the sound
    The noun

    In my car I’m on my way from where I live to where you are right now
    And though I’ve been here many times it seems as though it all has changed somehow
    I’m sure I’ve seen this busy road a million times or was it in my sleep?
    My minivan was in the sky, but never mind - I’m thinking far too deep

    Familiar signs have gone away
    I’m sure if it was not today
    I’d be there now - I'd find my way
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Track: Ithaca
Duration: 4:04
URLs:
- https://bowman.bandcamp.com/track/ithaca
Lyrics:
    I spent the best years of my life waiting
    For this moment
    A time to call my own, a place to call my homeland

    It’s come here far too soon
    I sit around my room
    Hatching my plans and schemes I mostly leave forgotten

    I spent my longest nights awake wondering through the outside
    Amused but still deranged, divided on the inside

    Returning to the core
    The place I can’t ignore
    The wonder behind the fear I just can’t seem to shake off

    Oo-ee-oo
    To dream or do
    To do or die
    To sink or fly

    Oo-ee-oo
    To get a clue
    To run and hide
    To laugh and cry

    I turned my back on battles won and sailed to new adventure
    The journey made by all, a lonely mortal tenure

    To Ithaca I sailed
    And though I have not failed
    My home is a fleeting camp, the journey’s just beginning

    I spent the morning hours awake writing down the lyrics
    Resolved to get it right - to capture the true spirit

    Although I sing along
    That moment now has gone
    My heart still a restless sea where Ithaca is calling
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Track: Kalesa In Binondo
Duration: 3:57
Contributors:
- Nick Smalley (kalesa driver, additional sequencing)
URLs:
- https://bowman.bandcamp.com/track/kalesa-in-binondo
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Track: Underneath It All
Duration: 2:33
Contributors:
- Katie Carrell (backup vocals)
- Tavia Morra (backup vocals)
- Clark Powell (string arrangement and sequencing)
URLs:
- https://bowman.bandcamp.com/track/underneath-it-all
Lyrics:
    Moving on is hard
    The more I fight the more I have to lose
    From the very start
    I should have known there would not be a use

    Underneath it all
    I’m sure it’s no one’s fault (feels like it’s my fault)
    Why bother to explain?
    There’s nothing left to gain (I need someone to blame)

    No time for regrets
    Repenting leaves you stranded in the past
    And though I've lost my bets
    I should have known the good times never last

    Underneath it all
    I was always bound to fall (I’m just so scared to fall)
    Behind the blood and tears
    I’ve been running dry for years (running from my fears)

    If you only could have seen
    All the things we could have been
    If I could have only shown you
    I would have known that you know what I really mean
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Track: Laughing Forest
Duration: 2:18
URLs:
- https://bowman.bandcamp.com/track/laughing-forest
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Track: The Roamin' Bowman
Duration: 3:59
Contributors:
- Erik Scheele (piano)
- Clark Powell (string arrangement and sequencing)
URLs:
- https://bowman.bandcamp.com/track/the-roamin-bowman
Lyrics:
    Tangled in the ropes that have strangled
    All the hopes that were dangled in front of my eyes
    But when I'm near you, I have nothing to fear
    You make life oh-so-clear, you cut right through the lies

    Somwhere, from the crack of the sun there
    I'd be working for one share bemused and alone
    But your love is the fast and the sure love
    Which keeps me feeling pure, love, each time I come home

    'Cause if my kind of home is really your kind of home
    Then what reason have I to roam?

    Lonely days, humid nights
    When I go to turn out all the lights
    I only know you, love, will still be my true love
    To have and to hold all my own
    For without you I guess I'd just roam

    My life is a head-in-the-sky life
    And I still wonder why life seems strange and unknown
    But when we're together, no matter the weather
    I feel that much better, like I've just come home

    'Cause if my kind of home is really your kind of home
    Then what reason have I to roam?
